The Dream Team

It was clear from the moment it was announced that pairing Tiger Woods with Phil (Mr. Callaway) Mickelson was a really bad idea and that it was. Team Europe thrashed the hapless Americans on Day One of the Ryder Cup. The hapless US television commentators reverted to "Monty the Great," by way of explanation, but it wasn't just Monty (great as he always is in Ryder Cup play). Darren Clarke, Sergio Garcia and especially Padraig Harrington were sensational.

Also sensational were the fans from Michigan. After the beery boorishness of Brookline in 1999, it was a welcome relief to hear the Michiganders applaud the fine play of the Euros while rooting hard for the home team.

Wishing It Weren't So


Kausfiles has a funny bit about yesterday's Note from the political team at ABC News. One reason Real Clear Politics has become the best bookmark of the 2004 campaign is that they separate news aggregation from opinion.

Concerted Effort


Here's an excellent chronology of the CBS News-National Guard documents story from the always excellent Corante. One thing that the author leaves out of his time-line is that the 60 Minutes story was the linchpin of a post-GOP Convention "stop-the-Bush-bounce" counterattack by the DNC and the Kerry campaign.

The Boston Globe and The New York Times provided newspaper "stories" about Bush's National Guard service. 60 Minutes provided the crucial, prime-time television coverage. And the DNC ran an ad that "contexted" the issue. If you think this was not all of a piece, let me introduce you to a friend of mine in the real estate business.

Happily enough, we now know that on 2 September, in the early evening, someone faxed a copy of the fraudulent documents to CBS News from a Kinkos in Texas. There were six security cameras working at that Kinkos, so we will soon know the identity of the person who faxed the documents to CBS News. Once we know that, the rest will unravel.

Fake But Accurate?

"In accordance with longstanding journalistic ethics, CBS News is not prepared to reveal its confidential sources or the method by which 60 MINUTES Wednesday received the documents."

Why not? The documnets are obviously fraudulent. CBS News has been badly tarnished as a result. I would think that someone at CBS or at Viacom would be ready to lynch whoever did this to CBS News. Any ethical obligation to the source, as emailer CM notes below, is forfeited if the documents are fraudulent.

Emailer CM is right about this. The identity of the source is the hinge of the story.

Endgame

Dear Mr. Ellis,

If CBS were to acknowledge the documents to be a forgery, then they could not claim ethical responsibility to protect their sources. Once implicated, the sources might further implicate those who encouraged them. Where would this lead?

Has any reporter ever gone to jail for protecting the source of a forged document? A document which the reporter himself acknolwedges to be false?

CBS will continue to maintain authenticity. They have no alternative. They have been very clearly advised on this by their attorneys.

The risk calculations are much different than for an ordinary news fraud. The business cost to CBS of acknowledging forgery could ultimately be much larger than mere damage to the brand. Think Arthur Andersen.

--CM

Pajama Party

So when does Dan Rather resign? The story he still insists is true has collapsed under sustained assault by the blogosphere. It appears that his most important media ally -- The New York Times -- has decided to cut its losses. And yet Rather continues to double down -- insisting even in private that the story is true.

What we are looking at here is a mini-Tailwind, politically-loaded fiction masquerading as "investigative journalism." Ordinarily, in situations like this, corporations move very quickly to isolate the damage and protect their brand image. A "producer" is fingered as the problem, a ritual sacrifice is held, appropriate apologies are offered, and the game begins anew.

Mr. Rather has put his CBS superiors in a very difficult place. By insisting that this phony story is true, he has denied them the easy damage control game plan. Indeed, he has put them in a nearly untenable position; they must choose between what the know to be true (that the story is phony and therefore damaging to the brand image of CBS News) and one of their largest investments (Rather himself).

At the end of the day (not that they give a damn about CBS News or journalistic integrity) they'll have to choose to defend the brand. Which means that the "damage" they will have to isolate is Rather himself. You can bet that tomorrow will not be a happy day at CBS Headquarters. A bunch of guys in pajamas have seen to that.

And That's The Way It Isn't


If you traveled in certain circles on the East Coast this past summer, the one story you heard over and over again was that Ben Barnes had the goods on George W. Bush's National Guard record and that CBS News was going to break the story on "60 Minutes." I must have heard this story four or five times, including once from an investment banker who claimed to have heard it from Barnes himself.

It is well known in Texas that Ben Barnes is not a guy you'd want to hang a story on, so to speak. And now it is well known that the CBS News piece that appeared on "60 Minutes" is based on fraudulent documents and patently false information. CBS News will have to disown this story soon because it just ain't true.

As, indeed, others are doing. The new tack is that Karl Rove created these forgeries; or less specifically, that they are a GOP dirty trick. Dan's a victim here, goes the new refrain. Among those offering this view is the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. It's interesting to note that he spends most of his time denying that the Kerry campaign or the DNC or any of its affiliates had anything to do with the story.

Of course they did. Ben Barnes is a Kerry fund-raiser in Texas. Leading Democratic operatives had foreknowledge of this story as early as July and were telling friends (and even foes) about it back then. The notion that Karl Rove or Andy Card or Mary Matalin would forge National Guard documents, then secretly have them delivered to Ben Barnes so that he would then take them to Dan Rather so that "60 Minutes" would then do a piece that said that the President of the United States was a slacker who shirked his duty is......(how do I put this?)...... utterly deranged. And everyone knows it.

What we are looking at is a scandal, an attempt by the Democratic Party and a number of its news media megaphones to smear the President of the United States. This is potentially a big scandal; one that might do real damage to the Kerry campaign and cost Dan Rather and his producer their jobs.

But I doubt very seriously that Big Media will devote much, if any, energy to this story. They don't want to hurt Kerry and they really don't want to do anything that would damage CBS News. And they certainly don't want to help Bush in any way, shape or form.

Whether Big Media can make this story disappear is a challenge that the blogosphere will take up with gusto. I'm betting on the bloggers.

Panic Watch

The house organ of the Democratic Party enters full panic mode this morning with this piece from Nagourney and company. No more wind-surfing! No more wind-surfing outfits! And lose the sun-glasses! Ellisblog thinks wind-surfing is responsible for half of Kerry's swoon.

The Gallup numbers should be out soon. This could lead to full panic meltdown mode. Remember the Iron Law of Conventional Wisdom: Whoever leads in the Gallup Poll on Labor Day wins the election.

Twist and Shout!

The Kerry staff shake-up story is now official, thanks to the estimable Albert Hunt, former Washington Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, whose sources inside both the Boston mafia and the national Democratic Party infrastructure are, let's just say, well-informed. Without further ado, let's go to the text of Mr. Hunt's blog-like "convention dispatch:"

Dispirited Democrats -- prominent senators, top fundraisers, even a few Kerry confidants -- have told the candidate, who is in Nantucket, that high-level changes are imperative. A few very well-connected Democrats report something will occur in the next few days. One person who might assume more control is Joe Lockhart, a former press secretary to Bill Clinton and a respected public-relations figure, but one who has almost no experience in the high-stakes world of presidential campaigns. Another possibility: veteran Democratic politico John Sasso, currently at the Democratic National Committee.

If there is a change -- Sen. Kerry privately is said to be "bouncing off the walls" in frustration -- it has to be imminent as the eight-week campaign is in full swing by Labor Day. "We have 48 hours," acknowledges an insider.

Do you suppose that one of those "very well-connected Democrats" might be...John Sasso? Do you suppose another might be Mr. William Daley? I do! I don't think Mr. Hunt would have written the above two paragraphs without having at least some sense that a "change" was coming. And I don't think he would have written it so urgently (his regular WSJ op-ed column appears on Thursdays, which is tomorrow), unless he felt that the news might break ahead of his Wednesday afternoon deadline.

Credit Mickey Kaus for moving this story along. Shortly after he arrived in New York, he began beating the drum. It's now the talk of the dispirited press herd here in Manhattan. The perfect press story for a GOP Convention; it allows them to talk to their Democratic friends and call it work.

Update: Senor Hunt is now backing away from his "convention dispatch" of yesterday with a new "convention dispatch" that says, essentially, never mind, it's just Joel Lockhart. Windsurf away!

Making The Cut

Tiger Woods did it again yesterday at the PGA Championship. With six holes left to play and a Friday "trunk slam" staring him in the face, he carded three birdies and three pars to keep his extraordinary record of "made cuts" in tact.

"I saw a lot of you guys [reporters] coming out on the last few holes," said Woods, "and I just wanted to ruin your day. . . . I wasn't playing that well, so I had to somehow just grind it out, be patient and hopefully things would come around. And they did. . . . I think that's the one thing I'm most proud of." As well he might be.

The golfing press -- the largest collection of half-wits this side of the National Press Club in Washington -- had spent most of Friday gloating that Woods' "made cuts" streak was finally coming to an end. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Bob Costas, Mind Reader

NBC Olympics anchors Katie Couric and Bob Costas seemed fairly certain that the US team would not be well received by the huge crowd at last night's Opening Ceremonies in Athens. When Team USA was, in fact, greeted with a sustained and clamorous ovation, Mr. Costas sought to explain.

The Greeks, you see, can separate their love for the American people from the policies of the United States government. The warm reception they gave to Team USA should not in any way be construed as an endorsement of those policies.

Well thanks, Bob, for clearing that up. God forbid anyone might support the policies of the US government as it wages a global war against Islamic fascism. Mr. Costas's ability to read the minds of 75,000 people he's never met is remarkable. He has a big future as a political pundit.